Tip Tuesday! Final regs on individual mandate released: 7 things to tell employees now

By Christian Schappel

Ever since the Obama Administration announced it would be delaying enforcement of the Affordable Care Act’s employer mandate to provide health insurance, the natural inclination has been to wonder: What’s this mean for the individual mandate? Finally, we have answers you should pass along to your employees.

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Tip Tuesday: 7 Crucial Health Reform Law Dates in 2012

January 18, 2012 by Christian Schappel

Yes, the bulk of the healthcare reform law doesn’t kick in until 2014. But there’s still plenty going on with the law this year.

Seven dates you’ll want to keep in mind:

• Jan. 1. This month, groups of healthcare providers officially started to band together to form Accountable Care Organizations (ACO) to treat Medicare participants. They are designed to improve healthcare quality in an attempt to bring down costs. ACOs will accept a flat fee for all care related to a small group of Medicare patients. The idea is
  that the more an ACOs quality of care increases, the more its healthcare costs will decrease — and the more money it will make.
• March 26, 27, 28. The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments to determine a) whether the individual mandate challenges to the law are barred by the Anti-Injunction Act, b) if the mandate is constitutional and c) whether the rest of the law can stand if the individual mandate is deemed unconstitutional.

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3 questions the Supreme Court will answer about healthcare reform

December 28, 2011 by Dan Wisniewski

The challenge to the healthcare reform act is finally on the Supreme Court’s calendar. Here are the three questions the court will try to answer when it hears the case in March. hearing challenges

The court will spend three days hearing challenges to three key issues. Here’s the breakdown:

1. Is the individual mandate unconstitutional? The big question on the courts’ plate: Did Congress violate the Constitution by requiring people to buy health insurance or pay a penalty? The court will hear two hours of arguments on the individual mandate, also known as the minimum coverage provision, on March 27.
2. Can the mandate be separated from the rest of the healthcare reform act? The court will also spend a significant amount of time arguing about what parts of the law should be eliminated should the individual mandate be ruled illegal. The states and businesses that filed the lawsuits against the government claim the entire law should be struck down if the individual mandate is deemed illegal. The feds argue that only some parts of the law should be eliminated if the individual mandate is struck down. Those arguments take place on March 28.
3. Should the challenge actually be pushed back to 2014? Before either of those questions can be answered, though, the court must first decide if it can even legally make a ruling about the mandate. A federal law called the Anti-Injunction Act states that “consumers can’t challenge a tax law until they have to pay for it,” according to Politico. If the court rules that the individual mandate is a tax, then the court could throw out any lawsuits concerning the mandate until it goes into effect in 2014.

The court will likely rule on the challenge to the act during the last week of its term at the end of June. We’ll keep you informed.  

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